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The Harlem Globetrotters are a basketball team that combines athleticism and comedy to create one of the best-known sports entertainment franchises in the world. Created by Abe Saperstein in 1927 in Chicago, Illinois, the team adopted the name Harlem because of its connotations as a leading African-American community. Over the years it has toured more than 100 countries, playing more than 20,000 exhibition games, mostly against deliberately ineffective opposition like the Washington Generals (1953–1995) and the New York Nationals (1995–present).

History

The Globetrotters are well known throughout the basketball world. The organization started in the Negro American Legion League as the "Giles Post", and in 1926 turned professional as the "Savoy Big Five". That year, promoter Saperstein bought the team and re-named it the Harlem Globetrotters, after the most famous of all African American neighborhoods. The Globetrotters were initially a serious competitive team, and they beat the premier professional team, the Minneapolis Lakers, two games in a row in 1948 and 1949. However, in 1950, Chuck Cooper became the first black player drafted by an NBA team, and from that time on the Globetrotters had increasing difficulty attracting and retaining top talent.

Finding success

The Globetrotters gradually worked comic routines into their act until they became known more for entertainment than sports. The Globetrotters' acts often feature incredible coordination and skillful handling of one or more basketballs, such as passing or juggling balls between players, balancing or spinning balls on their fingertips, and making unusual, difficult shots.

Among the players who have been Globetrotters are NBA (National Basketball Association) greats Wilt "The Stilt" Chamberlain, Connie "The Hawk" Hawkins and Nat "Sweetwater" Clifton, as well as Marques Haynes, George "Meadowlark" Lemon, Jerome James, former Temple coach John Chaney, and Reece "Goose" Tatum. Another popular team member in the 1970s and 1980s was Fred "Curly" Neal who was the best dribbler of that era of the team's history and was immediately recognizable due to his shaven head. Baseball Hall of Famers Bob Gibson, Fergie Jenkins and Lou Brock also played for the team at one time or another. Another famous former player is comedy legend Bill Cosby who had a contract with the Globetrotters when he was younger.

Because virtually all of its players have been African American and because of the buffoonery involved in many of the Globetrotters' skits, they drew some criticism in the Civil Rights era. The players were derisively accused of "Tomming for Abe", a reference to Uncle Tom and white (Jewish) owner Abe Saperstein. However, prominent civil rights' activist Jesse Jackson came to their defense by stating, "I think they've been a positive influence… They did not show blacks as stupid. On the contrary, they were shown as superior."

Modern era
During the 1970s and 1980s, the team was controlled by Metromedia and was featured in numerous television series and specials, including appearances in live-action variety shows and several Hanna-Barbera cartoons (see "Media" section below).
After a period of decline the Globetrotters franchise was purchased by former team member Mannie Jackson in 1993, and its fortunes revived again. In 2002 the team was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame.
To try to offset the criticism that they do not play "real basketball", in recent years the Trotters have scheduled games against college teams and pickup teams like Magic Johnson's All Stars with varying results. This renews a tradition of playing NBA teams, which the Globetrotters did during the 1950s.
The Harlem Globetrotters visited Pope John Paul II at the Vatican in November of 2000 and named the Pontiff an Honorary Harlem Globetrotter.
A whistled version of "Sweet Georgia Brown" is the team's signature song.
Winning streaks
On January 5, 1971 the Harlem Globetrotters lost a game in Martin, Tennessee in overtime to the New Jersey Reds as team owner Red Klotz sank the winning basket for a 100-99 score that ended a 2,495-game winning streak.
On September 12, 1995, the Harlem Globetrotters lost an exhibition game 91-85 to Kareem Abdul Jabbar's All Star Team in Vienna, Austria ending a run of 8,829 straight victories in exhibition games going back to 1971. The Globetrotters won the other 10 games during that European tour.
They also immediately went on another winning streak of 1,270 before losing 72-68 to the Michigan State University Spartans on November 13, 2000. In addition to their exhibition games, the Globetrotters have faced some competitive action since 1997. On February 27, 2006, the Globetrotters extended their overall record to 22,000 wins.
Honorary Globetrotters
Dr. Henry Kissinger

Bob Hope

Whoopi Goldberg

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

Jackie Joyner-Kersee (Honored:1998)

Nelson Mandela

Pope John Paul II (Honored:2000)

Reverend Jesse Jackson
Media
Marques Haynes and other Globetrotters starred in full-length feature film The Harlem Globetrotters (1951), also featuring Thomas Gomez, Dorothy Dandridge, Bill Walker, Angela Clarke. Young Bill Townsend drops out of college to join the famous independent Trotter team. He also finds romance along the way. "Goose" Tatum and fancy dribbler Haynes were the star players of the Globetrotters at the time and Saperstein was the owner. Tatum, Haynes, Babe Presley, Ermer Robinson, Duke Cumberland, Clarence Wilson, Pop Gates, Frank Washington, Ted Strong and other current team members appear in the film as themselves. Also featured is a lot of actual game footage (three times against the Celtics with Tony Lavelli and Big Bob Hahn), including their famous "Sweet Georgia Brown" warm-up routine. (Along with making the film, the team toured Major League Baseball stadiums that year and went on their first tour of South America.) "Go, Man, Go" followed in 1954, starring Dane Clark as Abe Saperstein and Sidney Poitier as Inman Jackson.
File:HarlemGlobetrotters.jpg
"The Harlem Globetrotters" (1970)
Hanna-Barbera produced a Saturday morning cartoon, The Harlem Globetrotters, from September 12, 1970 to May 1973. Originally broadcast on CBS, and later re-run on NBC as The Go-Go Globetrotters, The Harlem Globetrotters cartoon featured animated versions of Lemon, Neal, Hubert "Geese" Ausbie, J.C. "Gip" Gipson, Bobby Joe Mason, and Pablo Robertson, alongside their (fictional) bus driver and manager Granny, and Dribbles, their dog mascot. The Harlem Globetrotters and Josie and the Pussycats, another Hanna-Barbera offering, were the first Saturday morning cartoons to feature Black characters. After the show was cancelled, the animated Globetrotters made three appearances on Hanna-Barbera's The New Scooby-Doo Movies in 1972 and 1973.
The series worked to a formula where the team travel somewhere and typically go involved in a local conflict that leads to one of the characters proposing a basketball game to settle the issue. To ensure the Globetrotters' defeat, the villains rig the contest to ensure that their opponents lose. However, the team always finds a way to even the odds and win the game. For instance in a snowy region in winter, the team was challenged to play on a court that is actually a hockey rink against a fully equipped hockey team while the Globetrotters can only use their standard playing uniform. As a result in the first half, the Globetrotters can barely keep their balance on the slick surface while their opponents achieve a seemingly unassailable point lead. During half time, Lemon realizes they can improve their shoes's traction by putting glue on the soles. With their major disadvantage neutralized, the Globetrotters turn the tide with their superior and unorothodox playing skills and win.
In 1974, the Globetrotters appeared in the live-action Saturday morning variety show The Harlem Globetrotters Popcorn Machine, which featured comedy skits, blackout gags, and educational segments. The show was produced by Funhouse Productions and Yongestreet Productions for CBS.
File:SuperGlobetrotters.jpg
"The Super Globetrotters" (1979)
A second animated series, The Super Globetrotters, was created by Hanna-Barbera for NBC in 1979. It featured The Globetrotters (now including new squad members James "Twiggy" Sanders, Nate Branch and Louis "Sweet Lou" Dunbar) as undercover superheroes, who would transform from their regular forms by entering magic portable lockers carried in Globetrotter "Sweet" Lou Dunbar's Afro, or in a basketball-shaped medallion. Their foes included the likes of Museum Man, a disgruntled history museum janitor who can bring fossils and statues to life, Tattoo Man, an alien who can animate the tattoos on his body (similar to an enemy of Green Lantern), and the extremely bizarre Bullmoose, who wore fake antlers and was assisted by a gang of livestock-themed henchmen (Ham, Wool Woman, Ponytail, etc.). Three of the team's super-heroic identities were completely lifted from the titular characters of the late-60's Hanna-Barbera cartoon The Impossibles. As Liquidman, Nate Branch (the late Scatman Crothers) has the same water-based powers as Fluidman. As Sphereman, Curly (Stu Gilliam) would retract his limbs into his head to bounce, smash, even grow. As Spaghetti-man, Twiggy's (Buster Jones) powers are a bit different from Coilman, but can use his body like a ladder or a rope. As Gizmoman, Lou's (Adam Wade) giant afro holds an unlimited supply of gadgets. And finally, as Multiman, Geese's (Johnny Williams) cloning powers are similar to the Impossibles' own Multiman, even down to carrying a shield. Overall, the group can fly. The Globetrotters receive their missions from a basketball-styled talking satellite called the Crimeglobe (voice by Frank Welker). Most episodes culminate in the Globetrotters challenging the villain and his henchmen to a basketball game for whatever treasure or device they sought, the civilian Globetrotters being trounced by the villains' super-powers in the first half, and then using their own super-powers (often at the admonition of the Crimeglobe) to save the game in the second half. Meadowlark Lemon is, for some reason, removed from the group.
A 1981 made-for-TV movie, The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan's Island, featured the Globetrotters alongside Bob Denver and the rest of the cast of Gilligan's Island. The film's plot follows the first animated series' formula to a degree with a conflict that ends with an unusual basketball game against an opposing team made up of robots. The Globetrotters decide to play with standard moves in the first half and fall hopelessly behind in points until the Professor advises the team they use their comedic style of play to win, which hopelessly confuses the machines.
In more recent years, the Harlem Globetrotters have made multiple appearances on the animated show Futurama. These episodes feature fictional Globetrotters like "Bubblegum" Tate (played by Phil LaMarr). In the 31st century, it seems that the Globetrotters have a planet all their own, creating the need for a planet/planet showdown on the basketball court between the Globetrotter Homeworld and Earth (for absolutely no stakes beyond the shame of defeat).
In 2005, a documentary about the Globetrotters was released, entitled Harlem Globetrotters: The Team that Changed the World. It features interviews with Globetrotters and NBA coaches to Henry Kissinger—an honorary Globetrotter himself—and the late Pope John Paul II.
Video Games
In the NBA Live series of games the 70's All-Star Team wears jerseys that are similar to the Harlem Globetrotters. The team is often mistaken for the Globetrotters since Wilt Chamberlain is on the team.

A Harlem Globetrotters game exists for the Nintendo Entertainment System.
References
Spinning the Globe: The Rise, Fall, and Return to Greatness of the Harlem Globetrotters, by Ben Green (2005). Amistad/ HarperCollins Publishers
External links
Harlem Globetrotters

Basketball Hall of Fame profile

International Heroes info on The Super Globetrotters, animated version of The Harlem Globetrotters by Hanna-Barbera

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 The '''Harlem Globetrotters''' are a [[basketball]] team that combines [[wikt:athleticism|athleticism]] and [[comedy]] to create one of the best-known [[sports entertainment]] franchises in the world. Created by [[Abe Saperstein]] in 1927 in [[Chicago, Illinois|Chicago]], [[Illinois]], the team adopted the name ''[[Harlem]]'' because of its connotations as a leading [[African-American]] community. Over the years it has toured more than 100 [[countries]], playing more than 20,000 exhibition games, mostly against deliberately ineffective opposition like the [[Washington Generals]] (1953–1995) and the [[New York Nationals]] (1995–present).